Share this:

We all have visions of what we want to be and what we want to become. The newest 49er, David Carr, has a grand vision, and it came through in Carr’s interviews today with local media and on radio station KNBR.

On the radio with Ralph Barbieri and Tom Tolbert, Carr was asked about his most memorable win at Fresno State, and the Bakersfield native said it was an early season upset of Oregon State. Carr recalled that the celebration that followed extended from the stadium to his apartment near campus. Then Carr said that’s what he wants to bring to the 49ers. With an army of family and friends in central California, Carr wants to recapture his golden days in college, when he was flinging touchdowns, winning games and thrilling fans.

David Carr hopes for triumphant days as a 49er.

Undoubtedly before going to Fresno State, Carr was aware of Joe Montana and Steve Young, and the 49ers Super Bowl reveries and constant playoff dramas. In Carr’s voice he could almost hear a yearning to return to those years. Carr wants the 49ers to become the NFL team of the golden state and with his extensive connections to the state’s heart land, he has the capacity to do it.

“I’m a big family guy,” Carr said in a transcript of his interview in the team’s media trailer on Monday afternoon. “I have a lot of family that would love to see me play that haven’t had a chance to see me play, some people that I went to high school with that honestly can’t afford to come out and watch a game in Houston or New York. It’s just hard for them. You can’t even get it on TV. They don’t have money to pay for Sunday Ticket or do whatever. It was big for me to get back here. I have a lot of friends around here too.”

Carr also wants to recapture the big stage for more than just his own glory and even that of his new team. It’s something he shares with his new coach, Mike Singletary. “Coach Singletary in particular, has a great plan for this team and his heart’s in the right place,” Carr was quoted as saying. “He seems like a great guy and a man of faith. It’s something that I believe in strongly, too. I feel like I’m in this position for a reason and I think that he does too. Hopefully, it can work out.”

To gain such a platform, Carr will first have to beat out Alex Smith. He’ll start as the backup but he has been told by Singletary that what Carr does in practice matters. If Carr consistently looks better than Smith, nature will take its course. Should Carr overtake Smith, he’ll also need a team around him that’s playoff calibur, and Carr believes that’s what the 49ers are gathering. He told a story of looking at the teams that were interested in him (49ers, Cardinals and Browns) with his friend and former teammate Eli Manning.

“We used to talk about what defense we didn’t want to face and these guys always came up,” Carr said. “We used to talk about the young talent with [WR Michael] Crabtree and [TE] Vernon [Davis] and it seems like they have enormous talent on the team.”

Carr also said that his impression is that the 49ers were a team without cliques of three or four players who kept to themselves and talked behind people’s backs. That same team chemistry might have been behind Patrick Willis’s disparaging remark about Carr when he first agreed to a 49ers’ contract. Carr and Willis have spoken several times since and Carr told Willis that he didn’t need to apologize, even though Carr admitted the comment stung him. He said he wanted to prove to Willis he could play, and he also wanted Willis to one day be just as protective of him as he was of Shaun Hill.

Gaining Willis’s confidence is all part of Carr’s dream. Big accomplishments must first be envisioned. Carr has his vision. Now all he has to do is realize it.